What is an Engine?

The Engine is pretty much the Heart and Sole of your ride. Without one its all about walking but with a fully working one its all about letting the engine do the work!

What are Throttle Bodies?

Throttle Bodies remove the whole injection system from the vehicle in question,they are a direct replacement for the inlet manifold on your engine.They improve throttle response and power output using trumpets/horns for each cylinder with an injector in line, most have to be setup on a rolling road for maximum power output.They have a tendancy to look mean under the bonnet but just watch your fuel gauge drop! Throttle Bodies are usually used for high performance/race engines.

How do they work?

Throttle bodies has its own setup whice replaces the use of you original individual injector and inlet manifold on your engine. To fit them yo need to remove the inlet manifold,the fuel rail,and the injectors on your engine, the throttle bodies will need a mounting plate to be able to bolt onto your engine.

For example with the inlet manifold removed the spacer plate/mounting bracket bolts directly onto the cylinder head, your throttle bodies can then bolt onto the mounting bracket.

With the fuel injection system removed you can maximise the engine's air/fuel ratio. This is now being drawn into each indivdual cylinder. You can successfully set these up by having each throttle body setup for the specific engine, (i.e 2.0 litre using 1 injector for each trumpet). When the throttle bodies are setup to go onto the vehicle they are connected to a throttle linkage, This linkage operates all of the throttle bodies at once which means they have perfect working conditions and a maximum power output at all times.

The throttle bodies come in either a kit form or as individual components, The kit forms start from around £1500 and includes an ecu and the wiring you need to set the kit up. When you buy these as an individual component you can sometimes create this conversion from as little as £300.!

What are the advantages of having Throttle Bodies on my ride?

With Throttle Bodies the advantages are great not only do you get insane performance but the noise they give off plus the look of them are simply amazing. At normal light throttle driving your car is a normal everyday car, but stomp your foot down and unleash the full throttle the power is awesome! With the four butterflies bringing in direct air/fuel into each cylinder you will leave most normal aspirated cars standing!! It will certainly increase your engines BHP output by a lot and not only that but you will defiantley feel the difference!

What are the disadvantages of having Throttle Bodies on my ride?

There are only two down sides to having Throttle Bodies in our opinion. The first is the fuel consumption, having these on your ride will mean you will be in the petrol station a lot more. Secondly in freezing weather or cold conditions the engine might run lumpy on first startup so always best to be prepared and let the old girl warm up a bit first!

What is the Legality of having Throttle Bodies on my ride?

Proving you tell your insurance company of the change in specification you are fully legal. The police might have one or two things to question about the noise they give off but if you have declared all of your mods and they cannot prove that the car is faulty then there isnt a lot they can do about it.

What is a Supercharger?

It is a unit which is bolted onto your engine and is driven by a pulley on your crankshaft, the crankshaft turns the pulley on the supercharger which draws air in via the filter/air box and though a finned chamber inside the unit which causes the air flow to be smoother, forced induction. The faster the crankshaft spins/engine revs the faster the pulley will spin meaning the more air is sucked in and forced threw to the induction manifold therefore creating more power. Most superchargers have an intercooler in the system so it also cools the air before entering making a better denser air/fuel mixture (I.e. bigger bang).

What are the advantages of having a Supercharger on my ride?

The benefits of having a Supercharger fitted to your vehicle is the power is right at the end of your feet whenever you need it. The power is available as soon as the engine starts running so no waiting for the turbo lag to disappear and kick in to work the supercharger is instantaneous. The Performance, with power rises of up to 50% on a good condition engine you will have a healthy amount of power available to you,

What are the disadvantages of having a Supercharger on my ride?

The problems that occur with Superchargers are they use engine power to drive them so you will lose a small amount of bhp to run the unit itself were as a turbo uses exhaust gases to run on. The other down side is that some makes of Supercharger need overhauling (rebuilding) at a certain mileage due to oil seals leaking/belts breaking. If this happens your whole engine will need rebuilding as the parts get sucked threw into your engine, creating all sorts of problems!

What is the Legality of having Throttle Bodies on my ride?

If you fit a supercharger to your vehicle you have to let your insurance company know of the change and how much power it has made on top of factory spec. Other than that as long as its not harming you or anyone around you there is no cause for it to be questionned.

So can i just buy a Supercharger and bolt it on??

Indeed you can buy chargers in kit form just to bolt on with nothing else needed if thats what you want.Some good manufactorers like bbm/g-lader come with an installation cd.

Although this may well be an option it is always best to know what your doing when fitting a Supercharger to your ride. If you are thinking about having a kit fitted you should always speak to a specialist before hand as you dont want to break your engine!

HINT!!!

Our advice to you before you buy one of these is make sure your vehicle is healthy and it has had a good service history (cam belt, oil changes, etc) because when you put a charger on a vehicle that didn't have one originally your causing a lot more load and stress on the engine so something may fail in the near future, otherwise carry on and enjoy!!!

What is a Turbocharger?

It is another form of Supercharger. As a whole Superchargers and Turbochargers are devices built to increase your engines performance by a hefty amount.

A Turbocharger is the more commonly used device but unlike the Supercharger its powered from the exhaust gases rather than the engines pulleys.

How do Turbochargers work then?

Turbochargers or Turbos as they are known for short work by sucking the used exhaust gases out of the engine at the manifold. It then sucks the gases into a turbine which spins it up and throws it back into the engine at an extremeley high pressure causing an even bigger explosion inside the engine. They are usually mounted onto the inlet manifold and have a sealed pipe from the exhaust manifold to pass the gases back through.

What are the advantages of having a Turbocharger on my ride?

Other than the previously mentioned power increase Turbochargers have a tendancy to make a nice sound, especially when hooked up with a Dump Valve. A nice big, shiny turbo will also earn you brownie points at crusies and shows too!

What are the disadvantages of having a Turbocharger on my ride?

Other than being a bit of a fuel guzzler, Turbo'd engines have a tnedancy to run hotter than naturally aspirated engines. Thats usually where Intercoolers come in as heat is a natural power sapper.

A cooling off period and heating up period is usually recommended on high performance turbo engines too but if youve gone to the effort of doing this you should have invested in a Turbo Timer by now!

What is the Legality of having a Turbocharger on my ride?

Fully road legal as far as were concerned. The only way it can be classed as dangerous is if it can cause physical harm to other road users

So can i just buy a Turbocharger and bolt it on??

No, not quite. In fact there is a lot more to it than just bolting a proper Turbo kit on to your ride. Its usually advised to uprate your pistons and the rest of the inner parts of your engine to allow the pressure to cope. You will of course also need a new manifold for your engine too.

HINT!!!

There are a few kits available on the market that specialise in low pressure Turbo kits for naturally aspirated engines. These all but fit straight onto your ride.